Audience/Artist Conversations
Posted by Elizabeth Edwards on September 28th, 2007
There are all kinds of exciting audience/artist conversations happening here at McCarter these days… This past Wednesday we held a student matinee of Stick Fly, and three or four of the schools were able to stay afterwards for a conversation with the actors. It was a fascinating conversation–so lively, in fact, that actors and students alike had to practically be dragged out of the theater so stage management could get things cleaned up and take a break before the evening show.
Last night, Tartuffe got its first chance to be publicly discussed, when about 50 members of the community gathered at the Princeton Public Library to hear director Daniel Fish and costume designer Kaye Voyce talk about the upcoming production of the play. Once again, it was a fascinating conversation. Daniel and Kaye talked about the ways they and their approach to the play have changed since they last worked on it ten years ago (Daniel remarked that anytime he tries something in this rehearsal process the way he did it in the last production, it turns out to be the wrong choice). They also discussed the ways that live video will be incorporated into this production, which sparked a lot of enthusiastic logistical questions from the audience.
Daniel talked about his various entry points into the play this time around, which include the issues of power and submission, seduction, and surveillance. I finally got the chance to ask a question I had long been pondering–how Daniel is approaching the intersection of these different perspectives, and how they will come together in the final production. “Oh, I hope they won’t come together,” Daniel replied. “I’m very suspicious of that. Hopefully they’ll pull at each other in interesting ways.”
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Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre
